


Little Billie

by orphan_account



Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Aaron Hotchner being a dad, Abandonment, Adopted Children, Adoption, Aftermath of Torture, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anxiety, Anxiety Attacks, Attempted Kidnapping, Blood, Child Genius, Crime Scene Analysis, Crime Scenes, Dad Aaron Hotchner, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Forensics, Foster Care, Genius Original Character, Geniuses, Happy Aaron Hotchner, Hopefully Accurate Forensic Definitions, Implied/Referenced Torture, Injury, Insomnia, JJ Jareau is a good bro, Kidnapping, Major Character Injury, Major Original Character(s), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Original Character(s), Original Character-centric, Panic Attacks, Past Child Abuse, Protective Aaron Hotchner, Protective Derek, Psychological Torture, Rape Aftermath, Rape Recovery, Rape/Non-con Elements, Spencer Reid Is A Good Bro, Torture, Trust Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,808
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24037141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: She was something special, the team knew that. She had a young mind, a fresh perspective. She was smart. She was useful. But were they using her? Was this job too much for a kid to handle? Would it end up being dangerous?
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner & Original Female Character(s), Derek Morgan & Original Female Character(s), Elle Greenaway & Original Female Character(s), JJ Jareau & Original Female Character(s), Jason Gideon & Original Female Character(s), Penelope Garcia & Original Female Character(s), Spencer Reid & Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 4
Kudos: 14





	1. How it Began

The team had walked onto the crime scene, just like any other day. This scene wasn't anymore unusual than what they had normally seen. Another murder. The victim was a middle aged woman with shoulder-length brown hair, Mary Gardener, she had no kids, both parents were dead from natural cases, and only one living sister. That was the prime suspect. 

The first to the body was Reid, followed pretty closely by Hotch. Reid knelt down next to the body, 

"Two bullet wounds to the shoulder, and blunt force with a large object to the side of the skull." He stated, "Her dog was killed outside shot outside too."

"How do you know it was blunt force with a large object? Couldn't this killer have used anything to bash her head in?" Hotch asked,

"Well yeah, I'm just guessing because of the large terracotta flower pot shards in the trash can over there," Reid motioned to his right, "Probably used as a weapon."

The two continued examining the body, Gideon had made his was over to the pair and eventually so did a sheriff. 

"Hi, thank you for coming on such short notice, you guys will really be a big help to us." She spoke.

"No problem, so what can you tell us about the victim?" Gideon asked.

"Well, her name's Mary Gardener, she's 35, she owns a family run flower business with her sister, it's actually run right out of their backyard. There's only three workers, and Mary's one of them, we've tried to get in contact with all of them so far but only one has responded. His name's Thomas Little. He's fresh out of high school, apparently taking a gap year before he starts college. He's been working at the shop as a heavy lifter, moving around plants, pots, and bags of soil every day, sometimes helping out with filing and filling orders. Just trying to make some money before he goes off to college next year. The other worker was Mary's sister, Lily. Apparently, her husband left last night to go on an all-expenses paid trip to Vegas with but we haven't been able to find or contact Lily. We've contacted the local PD in Vegas and got a flight back for the husband, if all goes well, he'll be here by sundown."

"Do we know when Mary was killed?" 

"We know that a client of her's called in to do a wellness check when she wasn't answering the phone or anything. She's always been known for being very punctual and on-time to everything and with a family history of blood-pressure and heart problems, he got concerned. We found the body at about 11:00 this morning." The sheriff replied.

"Has forensics looked over everything?" Hotch asked.

"Umm, they've glanced over the scene, but we have a specialist coming at 2:30."

"Specialist?" Reid wondered.

"Yeah, she's special alright. You may have heard of her. You know Billie Ward?"

"Hey, I've read about her," Reid started, "She's the high school student that's solved 17 crimes in the state. She's gained a lot of publicity for the work she's done even though she almost always takes no credit and can never testify in court because she's a ward of the state. She technically doesn't even have a last name, just used Ward because of what she is. A ward of the state." 

"Yep. That's her. She truly is phenomenal, I don't know what we'd do without her. A fresh young mind and a fresh perspective is what she is." The sheriff smiled. 

"Does she get paid?" Gideon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, she's 15. Child genius or not, she still not old enough to be working for pay, she's barely old enough to get her permit, so if we did pay her it'd have to be under the table, which isn't taxed and that's tax evasion, which is illegal, and as law enforcement, that wouldn't look good, after the media fell in love with her and her story, they've been following the police everywhere we turn, she's got her own badge and everything."

"So she just does this for fun?" Hotch asked.

"Not necessarily. We give her high school credit. Her school's okay with it and we've got everything set up, but she lost both of her parents to their lives of crime. Too many drugs and bad connects. We think they were killed by a local gang 9 years ago, she was only 6, but that case was never solved. Since then, she's been working her tail off trying to solve her Parents' case but she says she might as well try and help solve others along the way, doesn't want anyone to go through what she's gone through. " The sheriff sighed, "She does good work though, she _has_ solved 17 cases after all."

And almost as if on cue, a young girl walked in. No taller than 5 foot even. She had a mess of curly brown hair the fell just past her shoulders and these big brown doe eyes that could probably get her whatever she wanted if she stuck out her lip and pouted. She had on a school uniform vest over a white long sleeve turtleneck with khaki slacks and a grey backpack slung across her shoulders. She walked with a cop on either side of her. She made a small face of disapproval as her eyes met the body of Mary Gardener. 

She looked up and saw the three agents standing by the body.

"You're-you're the FBI?" she asked, her voice was quiet. Not as if she was shy, though. Just as if she didn't see the need to be much louder than a pin dropping. It was a try at politeness that to some may come off as shy or dismissive, but the profilers knew, and they weren't offended.

"Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, this is Agent Gideon and Dr. Reid." Hotch held out a hand to which she gladly shook, nodding in Reid and Gideon's direction. 

"I'm Billie Ward, technically some would call me CSA Ward, but I prefer to go by Billie. It's still cool to say, though. CSA Ward." she smiled.

"CSA," Reid paused, "Wow, how long hang you been analyzing crime scenes?" Reid asked.

"Well, two years in the field, six if you want to count all the research and studying I've done online." She spoke while walked around, looking at the scene. Reid followed closely behind.

"And you're how old?" Reid asked, If we was going to talk anymore he would've been cut off by Billie's arm, stopping him from moving any farther forward. He noticed what she was looking at, dirt that seemed to have been swept under the sink's cabinet. She dug in her backpack and fished out a Polaroid camera, a small dustpan and handheld broom, and a coin envelope. First she took a picture, then she collected the evidence. She pulled a sharpie from behind a side pocket of her bag, taking off the cap with her mouth,

"You wouldn't happen to have a piece of tape, would you?" She asked Reid around the cap in her mouth. Reid pulled out a roll of scotch tape from his messenger bag. She nodded in thanks putting a piece of tape over the flap of the envelop and signing her initials over the edge of the tape. She closed the sharpie. 

"To answer your question, I'm 16." She nodded after her words, like she was convincing herself that it was true. She hadn't done that after any of her other times speaking. It was her tell. She was lying. 

"Really?" Reid asked, "I'm in the behavioral analysis unit, Billie. You can't lie to us." He joked.

"Okay fine. I'm 15. But my birthday's in 3 months, so I'm basically 16." She spoke.

"Basically." Reid laughed, repeating her. 

She made her way over to a counter, Reid decided to give her some space but kept watching her moves. She reach into her bag again. Reid got a glimpse of the inside. Binders, folders, an unopened pack of loose leaf paper, and a hard case pencil box. Normal school things for a 15 year old, but then he saw the coin envelopes, the manila envelopes, a zip lock baggie that said _'paper bindles'_ across the front, and a box of latex gloves. Which she grabbed two of and put on. It wasn't exactly fitting the rest of her picture. A smiling school girl, who just happened to see dead bodies and horrible tragedies every other day. 

She sifted through papers on the counter with her now gloved hands. Her hands stilled as she more closely examined a paper a few sheets down in the stack. She put it into one of the Manila envelopes from her bag. She held her hand out to Reid without looking up at him, he stood there confused for a second, the she looked up at him, they made eye contact. The confusion was brief but it was on both parties, Morgan laughed from the other side of the kitchen, drawing Reid out of his confusion.

"Sorry, here." He said handing her the tape again, "You know what, you can just keep it." 

She smiled and thanked him. Collecting a few pieces of paper, she put 3 pages in one envelope, but the one that she had studied for longer than the other went in it's own. She quickly glance around the Kitchen, eyes landing on a grocery list held to the fridge by a small magnet. 

"Aha!" She exclaimed silently. She put it in the same envelope as the special piece of paper and made her way to the window, collecting glass fragments from two bullet holes. 

Reid made his way over to Morgan.

"You awestruck, pretty boy?" Morgan teased.

"It's just that she's so young and she's already a CSA. I mean she's collecting, packaging, labeling, and sealing all of her evidence correctly and she's seeing things that I would've never thought to have looked at." Reid spoke,

"Outsmarted by a 15 year old." Morgan lightly punched Reid's shoulder. The two laughed until they heard Billie's gasp.

"You good over there, short stack?" Morgan called out. Billie stood, mouth slightly agape, frozen in the doorway to the backyard. When she didn't respond, Morgan and Reid made their way over. Seeing what she saw. It was a gruesome sight, but that's what comes in this line of work. 

It was a lady laying behind a bush and some flowers, she looked a lot like Mary Gardener, but her hair was blond. It was obvious from her roots which were growing in and the dark brown eyebrows. Next to her head was a broken flower pot. Next to the flower pot was a severely beaten in face. The blood wasn't flowing but it still hadn't completely dried yet, it'd probably feel tacky to the touch. Her teeth were laying around the head and her eyes were open, but rolled back. There was a single bullet hole to the shoulder and a slit throat with the jagged piece of terracotta still sticking out of the wound. Morgan steered Billie away from the doors. Telling her to go look at some other part of the crime scene. The body was identified to be Mary's sister, Lily.

After the initial analysis, there was 3 days of lab work and results. Everything came back inconclusive. The only person they could really point a finger at was Thomas Little, the fresh out of high school worker. But there wasn't even enough substantial evidence on him to even get a search warrant. They had broke the news Lily's husband. He didn't take it well. But the team was getting frustrated. 

"Should we call in the girl?" Morgan asked, as they all sat around a table at the local police station.

"Who?" Gideon asked, obviously not in the mood.

"You know, that girl, what's her name? Benny?" 

"Billie?" Reid supplied.

"Yeah, Billie, we should ask the sheriff to bring her in. Give us a new perspective." 

Gideon sighed and went to go get the sheriff. 

About 20 minutes later a very tired looking Billie came jogging into the police station. She had on sweats and a hoodie, and her hair looked like a rats nest, obviously unbrushed. She was carrying a notebook, pencil, and stack of Polaroid pictures. Hotch glanced at a clock on the wall, it was 5:30 in the morning. The team had gotten there at 5:00, I guess they never considered how early it was since they were so stressed about solving the case. 

"Sorry about having you come in so early, we just really needed a fresh set of eyes. A new perspective maybe."

"It's fine, I've been called in earlier." She said while yawning, "So what are you guys trying to figure out? I have some ideas on the reasoning behind Henry's actions-"

"Wait. Who?" Reid interrupted. 

"You know, the murderer?" Billie asked, confusion lacing her voiced.

"You know who the murderer is?" Morgan asked, dumbfounded.

"You guys don't?" Billie asked back, suddenly seeming much more awake and concerned.

"No, no we didn't" Gideon said, sighing and leaning back in his chair.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Billie explains how she solved the case and spends some quality time with Hotch

"You know who the murderer is?" Morgan asked, dumbfounded.

"You guys don't?" Billie asked back, suddenly seeming much more awake and concerned.

"No, no we didn't" Gideon said, sighing and leaning back in his chair.

"Well it's Henry Faulkner. Mary and Lily's accountant. He's worked with the family business for two generations now. He's pretty old but not old enough he can't get around." Billie stated.

"And just how did you come to the conclusion it was him, because he wasn't even on our radar." Morgan said. 

"He wasn't on mine either, but I realized it was him after I saw that he forged Mary's signature on a financial document trying to close the account that was connected to the business and transfer the funds. I saw the document and since both Mary and Lily are co-owners both of their signatures were needed to close the account. Lily's signature looked fine, it was neat and flowing, but Mary's looked choppy and off.

I didn't think I was one to say how neat Mary's handwriting should be but handwriting analysis is kind of my specialty and something just felt off about it. So I took the grocery list off the fridge, I did assume it was Mary's handwriting even though that was a place of business and Lily and Thomas also worked there, I took into account that it was still her home and Lily or Thomas wouldn't be reminding her to buy more grapes or laundry detergent. I ended up finding documents with examples of Mary, Lily, Thomas, _and_ , Henry's handwriting on them and the forgery was so obviously Henry's.

I also found a string of printed emails sent from Henry to Lily about how the business wasn't doing well and how they were operating in the red. That was true after looking through banking records and client details found in a record book on the crime scene. The emails were about shutting down the accounts and splitting the money between the three of them but Mary wanted to keep the shop open. Lily and Henry didn't like this but Lily eventually sided with her sister. But later Henry had said he convinced Mary to close the business and said he'd bring the paperwork to her house. That was the last email sent about that specific situation.

From what I've gathered. Henry forged the signature and the got Lily to sign the papers. He left the papers with Lily and offered to send her and her husband on a week trip to Vegas so she would be out of the way while he got everything finalized, that was also sent in an email, but Lily got sick the day they were supposed to leave and sent her husband to Vegas with a male co-worker. Lily brought the papers to her sister, who was obviously upset and phone records show 11 calls going to and from a number registered to Mary Gardener to a number registered to Henry Faulkner.

Mary probably threatened him with legal action, scaring him enough to go to their house and shoot both girls. The first one killed was Lily, the bullet was a warning shot that accidentally hit. He realized what he did and had to kill her to begin with. Mary obviously saw this happen so he had to kill her too. The dog might've gotten in the way at some point because it was also shot. After that he fled the scene. The reason he didn't leave any fingerprints was because he was wearing gloves and he never went inside the house to begin with. Any chaos inside the house was caused by either Mary panicking or Mary trying to get to her sister. 

The thing is though, Henry has been known to have OCD and is very open about his diagnosis. He doesn't bring his shoes inside, he leaves them on the sidewalk and sidewalks are public property so you don't have to obtain a search warrant to search the things on public property. The dirt on his shoes matched the dirt in Mary's backyard and being only their accountant he'd have no business going onto their property to do work considering he was completely capable of doing the work from home either over phone or through email. That was enough evidence to put him on the crime scene. 

The murder also would have had to occur in the late evening or early night because none of the neighbors were aware and all of the neighbors are elderly and the elderly can't seem to stay up for long. Evenings and nights get pretty chilly meaning he would've had to be wearing a jacket.

Since I'm a CSA, I got a search warrant and noticed a jacket on his front porch the sleeves of the jacket tested positive for nitrate, a common chemical found in gunshot residue. Even with the gloves he couldn't completely distance himself from the scene. Being an accountant should have no correlation to having Nitrate on your sleeves so it quite literally was putting the gun in his hands. I think It would've been less obvious if he walked around with a sign that said _'I murdered Mary Gardener'_ But that's how I figured out he did it." Billie finished explaining. 

"And where is Henry now?" Elle spoke up after a few beats of silence. 

"A police officer when to interview him and he ran. He hasn't been found yet and that was last night, I was there when the officer left for the interview and when he called over the radio that Henry was on foot. The officer said you all would be informed but I guess we see now that you haven't."

"I don't think we would've figured that out for a while. Thank you, CSA Ward." Gideon said with a small smile.

"I go by Billie." She spoke,

"Well as a thank you, how about I take you out for Ice cream later? We'll send you back home to get some rest, and maybe around dinner time I'll stop by and pick you up?" Hotch offered the girl.

"That sounds great, I'd love to." And with that she was off back to the group home, ready to get more sleep.

Around 6:00 that night, there was a knock on the door. Agent Hotchner stood as intimidating as ever, was met with the Sheriff's face,

"Once second I'll get Billie," She said, shutting the door.

As the door opened again, Hotch was greeted with Billie's lovely face. His demeanor broke as he smiled down at her.

"Ready for that ice cream?" He asked. She nodded and started to walk with him.

"You know I've never gotten ice cream with anyone, I've always gone by myself." Billie stated. 

"Not even with your parents?" just as soon as he spoke, he realized what he said. 

Billie let out a sad laugh, "No, I don't have parents anymore, and when I did I think they were more concerned about heroin than frozen dairy products."

"At least you can make light of the situation, not many people can do that." Hotch noted, "What happened to them? If you don't mind me asking."

"Don't worry, I'm not offended or anything I get asked all the time. My parents were drug addicts. Got caught up with the wrong people at the wrong time. Both shot and killed in the home. The case was closed and they said it was over a dispute involving heroin but I know it was more than that."

"What makes you think so?" Hotch asked.

"They were drug addicts, yes, but they weren't..." Billie paused, "They weren't bad people. If someone had broken in and wanted heroin, they would've gotten it. They were understanding people. They knew addiction and they understood what addicts were going through. They wanted to stop, they just didn't know how. If someone had broken in like the case says, they would've gotten what they wanted, there wouldn't have been a shooting. Something else had to have happened."

"How did you find out?"

"I used to walk home from school. When I walked home that day I just happened to walk in on two dead bodies. I didn't know what to do and I didn't want to get in trouble so I didn't do anything. I didn't go to school for 9 days and then when the truancy officer came to my house to do a wellness check he saw the bodies and that was pretty much the only day the case was open. It was Quote on quote _solved_ by the end of the night."

"I'm very sorry for you loss. It may seem like an inappropriate time, but what is your favorite favorite of ice cream." Hotch asked, face just as stone as when she met him on the crime scene. Billie laughed, 

"Chocolate chip cookie dough." 

He ordered her two scoops and they chatted over their ice creams and eventually when they finished, he stood,

"I'll be right back I'm going to use the restroom. You can wait here and I'll walk you back." Hotch said, Billie nodded, still enjoying her ice cream. 

When Hotch came back he was greeted with an empty seat that was once occupied by a child genius. 

"Do you know where the little girl went?" Hotch asked a worker standing nearby.

"Yeah, she left with her grandpa I think, bald guy." He spoke while sweeping.

_Henry._

Hotch's heart raced as he pulled out his phone,

"Gideon, yeah, we've got a problem. Billie was just kidnapped."


End file.
